Sparks
by Emmeebee
Summary: THE LAST JEDI SPOILERS. In the aftermath of the Battle of Crait, the Resistance flees into Wild Space to grieve their losses and start to regroup. The shadow of the First Order hangs over their every move, but the spark of hope remains. Now, two years later, that spark ignites.


**Tecleiliv, Wild Space**

A low droning noise pierced the room, drowning out the clamour of the fight. Deflecting one last bolt from Poe's practice blaster, Rey took a deep breath and slowly lowered her new lightsaber. As she deactivated the double-sided blade, a broad smile spread across her face. The idea of making her own lightsaber had been daunting, but with the help of Luke's Force ghost and the Jedi texts she had taken from Ahch-To, she had managed to complete it a few months after their escape from Crait two years earlier.

Ever since then, she had dedicated her recreation time to familiarising herself with the weapon and expanding her knowledge of the Force. The yellow-gold lightsaber felt more natural to her than Luke's ever had, but she still had a lot to learn. Fortunately, Poe and Finn were both willing sparring partners, giving her plenty of opportunities to practice and hone her craft.

"That was amazing," Poe said as he walked over to the timer they had set up on the windowsill and turned it off, ridding them of the irritation. "You got them all this time."

"I need to get them all _every_ time," she muttered, using the Force to summon a towel so she could wipe the sweat off her face.

Over the course of the past two years, Rey had resigned herself to the fact that Kylo Ren had made his true allegiance clear. While part of her still held onto the hope that he might return to the Light Side, she had accepted that she would have to fight him again at some point – this time, most likely, to the death.

She had to be prepared. During their fight on Starkiller Base, he had been disadvantaged; between the bowcaster blast to his midsection, his desire to keep her alive long enough to turn her, and, she had to believe, his turmoil over killing his father, he had been weakened and unfocused. This time, however, it would be different; this time, she wouldn't be able to rely on extenuating circumstances to get her through. He wouldn't falter, so she couldn't, either.

To his credit, Poe didn't try to reassure her by insisting that she was doing well or was putting too much pressure on herself. If there was one thing she had learned about him since their meeting on the _Falcon_ , it was that he was as much of a perfectionist as she was; he understood the price of failure on a battlefield and never wanted to be the one to cause it. So instead of offering false platitudes, he simply replied, "You'll get there. You just need to keep at it."

Rey nodded and tossed the towel aside. "You're right." Adjusting her feet, she settled back into a defensive stance, holding her lightsaber hilt in front of her once more. "Reset the timer."

Poe laughed, his eyes crinkling up at the corners as his mouth broke into a warm grin. "I don't mean _now_. The tactical meeting is going to start in half an hour, and I don't want to piss the general off by being late."

"Oh. Right." Rey relaxed her posture. Time meant little on Jakku. Most of her days had been spent scavenging, trading, or tinkering with the old starships, so for the most part, she had been able to organise herself as she pleased. It had been a lonely existence, but it had given her a lot of freedom. She was still adjusting to the idea of having to constantly monitor the passage of time to make sure she was where she needed to be when she needed to be. "Tomorrow, then?"

His eyes glinted with amusement as he shook his head fondly. "You're going to be the death of me, Jedi."

Warmth flooded her chest and heated her cheeks. She had never been prone to blushing; the harsh way of life on Jakku didn't lend itself well to such frivolities. But whenever she was around Poe, she felt giddy and nervous and _safe._ It was strange; it wasn't the sibling-like affection she held for Finn, or the unwelcome connection that still tethered her to Kylo Ren. It was something new and different and smouldering.

She couldn't get enough of it.

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Rey replied, "I certainly hope not. I would miss you too much."

Poe's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah?"

She shrugged slightly, feeling uncomfortable but pushing forward anyway, just like she always did. "Yeah."

He grinned, and his whole face seemed to light up. "I'm glad to hear it."

-x-

Rey knew he was there before he said a word. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the training room, her eyes closed as she practiced a meditation exercise Leia had taught her. Everything was still and peaceful. Poe had left to pick up a datafile from his quarters before the meeting, so she had decided to take the opportunity to cool down both physically and mentally.

Just as she was losing herself in the moment, the skin on the back of her neck prickled. She had grown accustomed to the feeling over the past two years and recognised it instantly.

"Your posture's wrong."

"I would rather my posture than your choices," she retorted, but still, she couldn't help but sit up that little bit straighter. For all of his bad decisions, Kylo Ren knew the Force better than she did; she would be a fool to ignore his expertise.

He didn't reply.

Rey wondered whether he was angry or simply thinking, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of turning around to find out. Besides, if she was going to have to kill him, it would be best to avoid anything that might make her hesitate. Talking about how wronged he felt or how much they could achieve if she agreed to betray everything she believed in wasn't going to change anything; it would only make that final blow harder.

Silence descended once more, but she was unable to quiet her mind. He couldn't hurt her through the link – they had found _that_ out shortly after the Battle of Crait – but it still felt unnatural to meditate while an enemy was nearby.

"You really aren't going to speak, are you? Do you intend on continuing on like this forever?"

Rey decided to ignore the second question. She had been scouring the Jedi texts in the hope of finding something that could sever the link, but she couldn't say that without giving away that she had them. The less he knew about her training, the better. "What is there to say?"

"You are destined for so much more than this, Rey. You're wasted here – with them."

It was like they were going in a circle. "I'm not 'destined' for anything. You're the one who taught me that."

"That wasn't what I meant."

"Yet it's the truth."

"Are you talking to yourself?" a second voice cut in.

Rey's eyes shot open, and she jumped to her feet. A familiar figure was standing in the doorway, watching her with concern. "Poe! I didn't realise you were coming back."

The pilot shrugged. "It's on the way from my quarters to the conference room. Rey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She instinctively glanced over at Kylo Ren, regretting that her first impulse had been to call out Poe's name. He would have known that he would be with the Resistance, but there was no need to give him confirmation of that.

Poe stepped forward, his gaze sweeping the room for threats. "Is someone else here?"

Rey turned back to Poe and forced herself not to look away again. She hadn't told anybody in the Resistance about the Force connection, and she didn't intend to. After all, she didn't want them to think that she couldn't handle it by herself or, worse, be trusted. As long as she was handling it, they didn't need to know. "No. No, of course not."

He looked unconvinced. "You can tell me anything. You know that, right?"

"I know." And she did. Theoretically, at least.

"I don't mean to pry, but there are times when you seem to… go away somewhere. Is it back to Jakku?"

She had never been so annoyed yet flattered at the same time. On one hand, it was touching that Poe had noticed and had given thought to what it might mean. On the other, it complicated things. She wouldn't be able to talk her way out of this; he was observant, and he knew her well enough to know when she was lying. She would have to either shut him down completely, which would ruin that tentative balance they had found earlier that morning, or tell him the truth, which could jeopardise her position in the Resistance.

But as she stared into his dark brown eyes, she saw something there that she never had before: commitment. Her whole life, Rey's goal had been to be the best she could be in the hope that she would make her parents proud when they returned for her, making them less likely to leave again. But Poe was nothing like her parents; he was focused and loyal to a fault. If she could confide in anyone, it was him.

She bit her lip, thinking quickly. She couldn't have this conversation in front of Kylo Ren, and the only ways she knew to get rid of him were to physically leave the location or do something that was symbolic of closing a door or cutting a cord. "Let's go for a walk."

-x-

Rey and Poe made their way to an out-of-the-way storeroom. It was more compact than the spacious training area, but it was private and secluded. About halfway there, she felt Kylo Ren's presence fade, leaving them blissfully alone. Still, she waited until they had closed the door behind them to start to talk.

"This is going to sound insane, but I need you to wait until I'm finished to say anything," she told him.

Then, she explained everything, starting with the first time she met Kylo Ren on Takodana and ending with the fact that although Snoke was dead, the connection was still there, just weaker and less frequent. Rey hadn't planned on telling him all of it, but it was all so jumbled up and interwoven in her head that once she'd started, it had come out in one big heap.

The entire time she was speaking, Poe's expression shifted between horror, empathy, and contemplation. When she finished, his eyes were distant, as if he were looking at something far-off and unreachable. "That… That sounds like a nightmare."

Rey wondered whether he was thinking back to his own first encounter with Kylo Ren. From what she had pieced together from the things that both Poe and Finn had said, it had been traumatic. "It is."

He turned back to her, although he still seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. "And there's no way of severing the connection?"

"Not that I know of. I'm still not even sure how Snoke created it in the first place."

"But you can open and close it at will?"

"I can close it," she confirmed. "I've never tried opening it, but Ren did it once or twice in the months following the battle, so I assume there's a way for me to as well."

Poe nodded to himself. "We need to tell General Leia."

Panic clutched at her chest. This was exactly what she had been hoping to avoid. The general had only recently come to terms with her son's betrayal. How would she feel about the idea of Rey being in contact with him, even if it _was_ unwillingly? Would she exclude Rey from the decision-making process out of fear that she might give something away or otherwise become compromised?

"Poe, we can't," she said, hating the distress that coloured her tone.

"What are you talking about? Of course we can. We have to." His gaze swept over her face, and his focus faltered, his eyes widening. "Rey, it's not your fault. I know that, and Leia will, too. But she can't lead effectively if she doesn't know what her team is going through."

Rey had to admit that that sounded fair. Functioning as part of a team didn't come naturally to her. She could fight alongside someone with ease, but she wasn't used to following orders or valuing another person's judgement above her own, even when they were someone she admired and respected. That independence had served her well on Jakku, but as Maz Kanata had told her, Jakku wasn't where she belonged. Not anymore. She belonged here, with the Resistance, and that meant letting go of some of her old habits.

"And if we loop her in on this, we can create some sort of signal for when it happens so you can let us know that you can't talk openly without him noticing," Poe added.

She was still reluctant, but she understood where he was coming from. "Alright. We'll tell her."

"Are _you_?" he asked. "Alright, that is."

"I'll be better once the First Order is defeated, but I'm fine."

Her words hung in the air between them for a moment before Poe suddenly asked, "Have you had the chance to visit the Lake Region yet?"

"No," she said slowly, trying to make sense of the sudden change of topic. The lakes were on the other side of Tecleiliv, so while she had flown over them a few times during training exercises, she had never seen them close-up.

"Me neither." Poe paused. "It would be a shame not to see them at least once before we leave the planet. Instead of our training session tomorrow, how about we go for a fly? I think we could both do with the break."

That feeling of warmth and safety returned once more. For the past two years, Rey had been terrified that someone would find out her secret and that they would see her differently as a result. But apart from practical concerns about its effects on both her and the Resistance as a whole, Poe didn't seem to care. It was like nothing had changed.

Rey beamed. "I would love to."

-x-

While they weren't technically late, everyone else had already arrived and taken their seats by the time Rey and Poe reached the conference room. It was a small gathering, consisting only of the command team and a handful of other high-ranking Resistance members. Leia was sitting at the head of the long table, talking quietly to Chewbacca. Rey noted that she looked weary. Losing her brother and the majority of her original command team had taken a huge toll on her, although it was clear that she was doing her best to keep strong for their cause.

The quiet chatter ceased as Rey and Poe entered the room.

"Here they are," Leia said, turning her head to greet them with a wry smile. "Now, we can begin."

Rey and Poe parted, with Poe taking his place to Leia's right while Rey sat down beside Finn.

"You two cut it close," he whispered under his breath.

"Early morning training session," she replied. "Did we miss anything?"

Finn shook his head. "Just greetings and small talk."

They fell silent as Leia began to speak. "We have received word from our one of our spies on Arella. It seems that _Kylo Ren_ is starting to mobilise his forces and is heading towards the Outer Rim. His exact destination is unclear, but Illya believes Ren has caught wind of our suppliers on Xagobah."

The room descended into cries of protest and unease as its occupants reacted to the news. Rey personally felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. She didn't know much about the geography and history of the Outer Rim, not having had any need of either on Jakku, but what she _did_ know was that the planet provided them with a significant portion of their weaponry. If Kylo Ren took them out, it would be a huge blow to the Resistance.

Leia raised her hands, and the gathering slowly quietened. Turning to Poe, she asked, "What is the current state of our squadrons?"

Poe frowned, his eyebrows drawing together. Frustration tinged his voice as he replied, "The new recruits are improving, but there aren't enough of them, and they still have a long way to go. We can cobble together a taskforce if we have to, but the odds won't be good."

Leia sighed. "That's what I feared."

"What about the Corellian branch?" Rey asked. After one of their training sessions, Poe had told her about how momentum was building in their Core World counterpart. The Resistance had to be careful there since there was more surveillance and oversight, but they had amassed a decent amount of support and were growing by the day. "Could they send backup?"

"It would be risky," the general said, although she looked intrigued. After a moment, however, her expression fell. "They have enough firepower to give us a chance, but they would never make it there in time. Kylo Ren is much closer, and he has already started moving."

But Poe had started to smile. "They could if we delayed him."

"We don't have enough ships for a distraction," Connix pointed out. "We would need to keep everything we have for the actual confrontation."

"What if we don't use ships?" Finn asked. "What if we make him think we're on the opposite side of the galaxy so he goes there instead? That would give the Corellians enough time to get to Xagobah."

"Could one of the spies do it?" Connix asked. "Is Illya still in position?"

Leia shook her head. "He is, but Kylo Ren would see through him in an instant."

Rey took a deep breath and glanced over at Poe. "I can do it."

"What do you mean?" Finn asked, but Rey kept her eyes focused on the pilot, whose smile had now broadened into a full-on grin.

For the second time that day, Rey explained her Force connection with Kylo Ren. She didn't go into as much detail as she had with Poe, instead focusing solely on how it had started and how it worked. The Resistance already knew about Snoke's death at the hands of Kylo Ren, and everything else – the cave, Luke's sense of shame, how her parents had abandoned her – was either irrelevant or too personal to share. Even without that, it was a difficult conversation; the only things that got her through it were the memory of Poe's reaction and the fact that it was, in all probability, their only hope.

The gathering burst into an uproar as she finished speaking, but Rey only cared about Leia and Finn. They were the people she had to convince. As long as they forgave her, the others could think whatever they wanted.

Neither had said a word since she'd finished speaking. But while Leia merely looked contemplative, Finn's lips were pressed tightly together, his expression blank and closed-off. Rey had the sinking feeling that he would take longer to accept the news than Poe had. After all, she and Poe had only recently started growing closer, whereas she and Finn had already been friends at the time.

Before she could think about it any further, Leia raised a hand, and everybody fell silent. "I can't deny that I'm disappointed you didn't tell me about this earlier, Rey. Nevertheless, you're right; this might be our only option. Do you think you can do it?"

"I've never tried it before, so I don't know for certain. But I wasn't able to tell when Kylo Ren initiated contact until he told me. I don't think he will be able to either."

"If it fails, he'll know that he's on the right track," Roth Umo, one of their new lieutenants, protested.

Finn scoffed. Thankfully, it didn't seem like he was going to let his displeasure get in the way of the mission. "He either already knows that or will find confirmation when he gets there."

"And I can be there with her," Poe offered. "He'll know something's wrong if Rey just starts talking to him, but we can make it so we're in the middle of a conversation when she opens the Force link."

"And then you feed him information that way, making it seem like she is trying not to say anything important but is unable to break off the conversation," Leia finished for him, nodding slowly. "Alright, I think we're all done here. Rey, Poe, I want to speak to both of you so we can go through the details. Everyone else… it's time to prepare for war."


End file.
